ARCHIEVES OF THE NORTH

ARCHIVES OF THE NORTH

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>>> score site and setting

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5-10 10-15 15-20

Beauty and the perfect imitations of failure

Over the past two decades Polwechsel’s output has thrived on a democratic process of specifically composing for the abilities and techniques of its cast with each member possessing a unique and developed voice in instrumental performance. During this period Polwechsel has produced divisive compositions, structured improvisation and electro-acoustic works which have all spoken intricately and explicitly on the organization of noise, the locus of technique, and the dynamism of the ensemble.

Polwechsel work with a stringently refined vocabulary of techniques in sound production and sonic choreography. Their works often patiently study and extract beauty from the bare elemental juxtaposition of techniques. They explore strategies where form and function are radically and frequently challenged – the start-point is an expanded musical discipline which deals with the mechanics of beauty in her many perspective distortions and variations. It renders poetry through process, is littered with perfect imitations of failure and aleatory justifications that occur with stunning clarity of gesture and purpose.

What defines a Polwechsel piece is singular approach to the textural and temporal. This is work which speaks volumes on its medium by revealing the details of its architecture, each piece splays from a keystone which will define its internal workings for the duration – which sets this work apart from free improvisation – is that it works within a framework which balances outré exploration with highly considered logic. The work could be described as a stayed and conscientious debasement of the notions of conventional musical form. The work can at times be excruciatingly delicate, yet it contains an anger and directness that demands consideration of its magnificence, of its explicitness, which insights a drastic re-consideration of the state of music as material – every note resounds with a question of its own integrity.

The unthinkable and the already thought to death

In music, the notion of ”new” has quite unpredictably manifested in a non-committal and often light interpretation of an ”avant-garde” – the aesthetics of which has filtered through into idioms defined as ”ambient,” ”electro-acoustic,” ”improvisation,” ”IDM,” ”post rock” and so on, which are areas rife with minor challenges and suggestions of an ”avant-garde” form re-evaluation.

Polwechsel have actively re-contextualized aesthetics common to all of these defined genres, which would suggest that without claims to revolutionize the eclectic epoch, the work is conscientious of the suggestion that we are in the midst of a pregnancy for a music-ethical transformation. In this difficult, saturated realm of post-modernism or eclecticism, Archives Of The North address a necessity of re-thinking the system and purpose of the perpetual montage of the "avant-garde" signifier, that is, the extended technique.
Polwechsel’s music pertains an attitude toward this, its stance is an expression of confidence, self-awareness and humility achieved through dedicated practice and mastery of technique and form. An airing of Powechsel music has political undercurrents evocative of a general aspiration for a justified newness in that it sets up a territorial scenario which accommodates tradition and avant very tenuously, and by doing so provokes reconsideration of the function of the ensemble.

In Archives Of The North Polwechsel has harnessed the aesthetics of a free-noise as sound liberated from genre. They have distilled the potency of the signifiers of oppositional free music, they have set about ordering, pacing, arranging this repertory with the compositional stringency and calculation of avant-garde composition – which is where they will most frequently and effectively borrow.

Appropriately the opening piece ”Datum Cut” has derived its process in part from Alvin Lucier’s ”I Am Sitting In A Room,” which is a striking reminder that the exquisitely simple and effective piece has had an undeniably resonant influence in electro-acoustic techniques, while having another life as a poem on the subsuming and disappearance of the performer through permutation. As an expanded approach to ensemble performance, this appropriation of technique best describes how Polwechsel explores self-reflexivity. Elaborating upon themselves and their place within an architecture. This piece goes on to reveal its process in a structural manner, its workings seem to uncoil like a wind-up clock being taken apart.

British filmmaker William Raban has created a work entitled ”Take Measure” in 1973. He stated his intention to ”mirror the processes of production constructing the reflexive space in which the audience can be directly engaged.” The projection of this film demonstrates the space between the projector and screen by unraveling meters of film through the aisles of the cinema. As this piece of film plays it recoils onto the spool, the film snakes backwards through the audience as is consumed by the projector. By transforming the screening event into an action the work becomes about its space, materials and duration. Much like Lucier’s ”I Am Sitting In A Room” and a Polwechsel concert, the author and observer, the room, the media and the mechanics are all illuminated through a slight re-consideration of role. One can walk away from that with their perceptions of a medium heightened.

Dean M. Roberts, December 2005

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I have been listening to it tonight. You won't believe me when I tell you though, this is true, I got a Noise Police complaint while I was playing the Polwechsel CD very loud ! I admit I was playing some punk singles before EXTREMLY loud and in a break I heard some people calling from a speaker outside my building. so I turned off the music and the lights. I put the Polwechsel CD on not so loud but the noise police would not go away and they came back and asked what I was doing - Then I went down to the door to see what they want and they presented me a with a document which was a noise warning ! they came in and they listened to the music for a short time and made a measurement with a decibel meter. I wish I had filmed this ! Then they asked what kind of music was this ! I said "Polwechsel, from Austria" and then they said "Fuck mate, I've never heard that before!" and I said yeah, it's not yet released ! And then one of the two guys asked me if you have a website ! and he was very happy and curious about this! and they could not understand why I was listening to this music on sunday at 11:30 pm so loud alone! it really shocked them I think.

Dean Roberts

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„The Polwechsel project has been exponential in defining new approaches to the composition/improvisation paradigm,“ writes Dean Roberts in an extended and perceptive essay accompanying Polwechsels fourth release – the first to feature new recruits Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr (Radian, Trapist) on percussion along with old hands Werner Dafeldecker (bass), Michael Moser (cello, computer) and John Butcher (saxophones). „Each phase of Polwechsel has been marked by a defining document and the releases of their recordings have frequently bookended trends and movements in improvisational and experimental music,“ he continues.
Indeed. One imagines that copies of the first edition of Polwechsel 1, released on Cologne´s Random Acoustics label in 1994, might one day fetch astronomical prices on eBay. From the outset, it anticipated many of the developments that would characterise the next ten years of improvised music. Namely a retreat from the high octane „gabbiness“ (to quote Radu Malfatti, Polwechsel member until 1997) of old school Improv into a world of sustained sonority and timbral nuance, a studious avoidance of unbridled and unruly „soloing“ in favour of clearly defined composed – if not traditionally notated – structures. The slow heartbeat of Polwechsel´s music became an aethetic cornerstone of electroacoustic Improv. It was no coincidence that individual releases by Butcher, guitarist Burkhard Stangl (who left the group in 2003), Dafeldecker and Malfatti helped establish the Erstwhile label as electroacoustic improvisation´s imprint of reference, and Polwechsel subsequently appeared as a group, joined by Christian Fennesz, on the 2002 Erstwhile release Wrapped Islands. With the benefit of hindsight, the four tracks on Polwechsel´s debut album – three penned by Dafeldecker, one by Moser – marked a defining moment when improvised music began to turn its back on Peter Brötzmann and Derek Bailey and started looking towards Alvin Lucier and Helmut Lachenmann instead.
Lucier and Lachenmann are namechecked in Roberts´s sleevenotes, but Polwechsel´s music, though clearly indebted to both, navigates a steady course between the complex virtuosity of Lachenmann´s self-styled aesthetics of failure and Lucier´s pristine „it is what it is“ minimalism. The processes at work in Moser´s „Datum Cut“, which opens the new album, are evident enough if one pays attention, but they´re half buried under a textural moss peculiar to the group – „a webbing made of a hundred roots, that drink in silence“, to quote Robert Bly´s translation of Rainer Maria Rilke´s celebrated poem in Das Stundenbuch.
Which takes us to the album title, Archives Of The North (Rilke would surely have appreciated it). Unlike its three generically numbered predecessors, this one has a title, and its double reference to archives – library, catalogue, documentation, classification, the weight of cultural tradition – and North, with its attendent associations of harsh climate, Protestant asceticism, cold black lakes and dark forests, resonates perfectly with the music. Polwechsel albums are solemn, sometimes downright forbidding affairs, but compared to the austere Lucier-like harmonic drift of „Toaster“ (on Polwechsel 2) and the gristle of „Government“ (on Polwechsel 3), Archives is suffused with, if not warmth, at least radiance, thanks in no small part to the colours brought to the group by Beins and Brandlmayr. Percussionists as opposed to drummers, both are here more concerned with continuous sound production than with seeking to impose any kind of rhythmic element, further distancing the music from any distant origins it might have had in free jazz. Even the flurries of log drum clatter on „Core Cut“ sound more like Silvio Gualda than Paul Lovens. It´s significant also that three of the five tracks on Archives have been penned by Moser, a classically trained cellist who works frequently with prestigious New Music ensembles including Klangforum and Ensemble Neue Musik Wien, and Berlin´s Zeitkratzer, who have arguably given contemporary classical music at the turn of the 21 century the same shot in the arm that The Kronos Quartet gave it a quarter of a century ago.
Even so, unlike Polwechsels 1 and 2, which share shelf space with Cardew, Feldman and Haubenstock-Ramati on Werner Uehlinger´s bijou New Music imprint hat[now]ART, Archives Of The North is on hatOLOGY, and comes with the (supposedly helpful) instruction „file under Jazz/Free Improvisation“. But like the unjustly overlooked Polwechsel 3, which Dafeldecker released on his own distinctly user-unfriendly Durian imprint (functional unadorned plastic case, all artist and track info only on Durian´s Website), we´re a long way from what old school Hat Hut punters would consider „free improvisation“ here. Though aficionados of post-AMM laminal/Reductionist/lowercase/electroacoustic Improv will have no difficulty identifying with the Polwechsel aesthetic. Despite their changes of personnel, Polwechsel are a group with an invisible member: the group itself. Like AMM. („The three players plus the group itself makes four: AMM is a quartet with an invisible member“, Keith Rowe told The Wire in 2002.) The group have retained and refined a sound all of their own. Dafeldecker´s low end thuds and gloomy E-string drones are instantly recognisable on his „Mirror“, as are Moser´s discreet yet exquisite touches of extended technique cello on the closing „Site And Setting“, but it´s a credit to the group´s aethetic rigour that performers as distinctive as Butcher, Beins and Brandlmayr have integrated so seamlessly into the Polwechsel sound. Listen carefully and you can pick out Butcher´s meticulous multiphonics, Beins´s trademark stone/polystyrene friction and Brandlmayr´s ever daft cymbal work, but Archives Of The North is, and will remain, a music that is far more than the sum of its parts.

Dan Warburton, The Wire

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Sinnliche "Frühstücksmusik"
"Ob die Phase der 'Reduktion' vorbei ist? Diese Frage wurde mir zuletzt viermal gestellt. Insofern liegt das wohl in der Luft. Wobei unter Musikern das Thema schon länger virulent ist." Die Frage ist Werner Dafeldecker zu stellen. Schließlich pflegt er - mit Michael Moser Kopf des Ensembles Polwechsel - seit 13 Jahren eine Ästhetik der Klangmikroskopie im Schnittpunkt zwischen kompositorischen und improvisierenden Strukturdenken. Und dies hat auch international einen gewissen Kultstatus bewirkt. "In die Schublade der 'Reduktion' gesteckt zu werden, dagegen haben wir uns immer gewehrt", so Dafeldecker, früher Kontrabassist von Ton.Art und Mitbetreiber des Durian-Labels. "Es hat bei uns genauso gut passieren können, das wir mal volles Rohr losgetrötet haben. Uns ging's anfangs darum, Material möglichst konzentriert zu bearbeiten, und alles unnötig Erscheinende wegzulassen. Wie das Vibrato des Operngesangs etwa." Wobei es auch sein konnte, "dass wir gesagt haben, wir arbeiten mit dem Vibrato - aber dann nur mit dem Vibrato." Dafeldecker und Michael Moser, den gefragten Cellisten (zuletzt in Donaueschingen hervorgetreten), werkten indessen nicht allein auf weiter Flur. In Barcelona, Berlin und Tokio betrieben Musiker ähnlich elementare Klangforschungen, wobei die ebenfalls zahlreichen Kollegen in der Heimat Wien - wohl nicht zufällig in zeitlicher Parallele zum abebbenden Elektronik-Hype - sich als vielleicht erste wieder von den streng modernistischen Geräusch-Tüfteleien verabschiedeten und konkrete Einflüsse zuließen - siehe die aktuellen Arbeiten u. a. von Radian, Trapist oder Franz Hautzinger. Auch das neue, ausgezeichnete Album von Polwechsel klinkt sich hier ein: Archives of The North (hatOLOGY/Lotus) heißt es und wurde damit - sieht man von den frei improvisierten Wrapped Islands-Sessions mit Christian Fennesz (2002) ab - als erstes nicht nur mit einer nüchternen Nummerierung, sondern mit einem assoziationsträchtigen Titel ausgestattet. Moser: "Wir haben uns zwar gegen das Label gewehrt, aber zum Teil sicher sehr reduzierte Stücke gemacht. Irgendwann kommt man an einen Punkt, an dem man sagt: Weiter zu reduzieren hieße, mit dem Spielen aufzuhören. Oder nach 30 Minuten Stille einen Ton zu spielen. Was nicht unser Ding ist. Deshalb haben wir seit Jahren darüber geredet, die Musik in die andere Richtung zu entwickeln." Um Irrtümern vorzubeugen: Auf der CD wird nicht mit Zitaten jongliert oder gerockt. Polwechsel ist natürlich Polwechsel geblieben. Jedoch: Der explorative Impetus scheint offener, er geht nun weit über das Geräuschspektrum hinaus. Die Formation legt in flirrenden Drones eine so bisher nicht gehörte, schillernde Klangsinnlichkeit an den Tag. Viel zu tun hat jener neue Soundreichtum auch mit Umbesetzungen: Burkhard Stangl ging, die Schlagzeuger Burkhard Beins und Martin Brandlmayr kamen. "Die CD ist relativ zugänglich. Vielleicht werden wir dadurch einige Hardcore-Fans verlieren, dafür neue hinzugewinnen, so Dafeldecker. "Ich persönlich könnte mir die CD zum Frühstück einlegen."

Andreas Felber, Der Standard

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Polwechsel
Archives Of The North (2006)
Avec Archives Of The North, Polwechsel - quartette autrichien formé en 1993, deux fois remaniés depuis, suite aux départs du tromboniste Radu Malfati en 1997, et du guitariste Burkhard Stangl six ans plus tard - accueille les percussionnistes Martin Brandlmayr et Burkhard Beins. Et fait de son quatrième disque un chef d'oeuvre d'ambient électro-acoustique.
Enfilant les notes soutenues de son saxophone ténor, John Butcher emmène d'abord sa formation le long d'un schéma répétitif, à l'origine d'un monde de métaux réverbérés, évoquant Eno ou Xenakis (Datum Cut), avant d'offrir aux nouveaux venus l'ouverture de Mirror. Là, les batteurs jouent des résonances, explorent les possibilités sonores des cymbales, soit : usent de schémas rythmiques non aboutis, empêchant le violoncelle dissonant de Michael Moser ou les souffles que le même traite à l'ordinateur d'être recadrés.

Pas à l'abri des perturbations, le groupe instaure ensuite quelques instants d'exécutions rapides (Core Cut), puis improvise totalement Magnetic North, amas d'interventions délicates rendant une atmosphère diaphane à force d'avoir été étirée. A intervalles réguliers, un dialogue entre la contrebasse de Werner Dafeldecker et les percussions s'immisce en Site And Setting, dernière plage d'une réalité plus concrète, oscillant entre le grincement du violoncelle et les combinaisons circulaires d'un saxophone travesti en flûte indienne.

A l'arrivée, l'essentiel a moins été dit qu'inventé et donné à entendre. Les explications, déjà subjectives, changeront au fil des écoutes. La seule évidence étant la qualité indéniable d'Archives Of The North, signé d'un Polwechsel encore plus loin devant.

Chroniqué par Grisli, dMute le 13/06/06

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Stefano i. bianchi, blowup

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nate dorward

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Avec ce cinquième* album, l’essentiel Polwechsel retrouve, mais dans la « série orange » (plutôt jazz, ce qui est amusant), la maison Hat qui avait publié dans la « série rouge » contemporaine (hat[now]ART – anciennement hat NOW series) ses premières traces phonographiques. Si le groupe avait jusqu’alors maintenu un effectif relativement stable – après le départ du tromboniste Radu Malfatti qui a donné, au printemps, avec Mattin, un Going fragile, ? Formed 103, pour le moins finement radical et réussi – il ne compte dorénavant plus le guitariste Burkhard Stangl dans ses rangs : John Butcher (ss, ts), Werner Dafeldecker (b) et Michael Moser (cello, computer) accueillent ainsi pour cet enregistrement de mai 2005 les batteurs-percussionnistes Burkhard Beins et Martin Brandlmayr.
L’introduction de ces deux instrumentistes dans l’univers de timbres élaboré par la formation pourrait surprendre… ce serait mal évaluer leurs accointances esthétiques avec la démarche (tout comme il n’y a rien d’étonnant à entendre Butcher avec Eddie Prévost dans leurs récents Interworks, ? Matchless MRCD66) de ce groupe des plus marquants – a-t-il jamais joué dans nos contrées ? ah, Afijma, afflige-moi…
Ils participent à la mise en vibration et au raffinement des matières (des traçantes jusqu’aux plus profonds ébranlements frottés) et confortent une forme certes de solennité mais également une austère puissance assertive, une façon de poser, dans un rigoureux séquençage, les objets sonores sans verser dans le design glacé (à bon volume, les divers grains apparaissent). Leur apport me semble tenir au fait qu’à la minéralité monolithique des architectures antérieures se substituent des compositions et climats assez distincts, des battements d’eau, de très lentes éclaboussures, une paisible respiration : comme une pacification de l’espace (espace musical et espace domestique d’audition) sans abandon de l’intensité de ce son collectif si caractéristique.

Guillaume TARCHE, IMPROJAZZ

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11 years after their influential debut recording on Random Acoustics comes the 5th public document of this ensemble centered around Michael Moser and Werner Dafeldecker's efforts to untangle the products and processes of improvisation. This quintet edition of Polwechsel is the first without Burkhard Stangl, but the addition of pace-setting idiophonists Martin Brandlmayr and Burkhard Beins is the most radical revision. John Butcher's unparalleled extended saxophone vocabulary continues to be the ensemble's most compelling adaptation of the timbral legacy that improvisational methodology has nurtured and I admire him for his willingness to contribute to a mostly non-improvised project like Polwechsel. As in the work by Beins/Denzler/Durrant (Trio Sowari), the conventional identities of saxophone, drum, and cymbal are rarely recognizable. Likewise for Dafeldecker's contrabass (he doesn't use guitar or computer for these works), which is miraculously subtle. This album is a momentous masterpiece and quite a step beyond earlier Polwechsel and most other work by these folks I've heard. Beins and Brandlmayr vastly multiply the timbral complexity of the ensemble sound, narrowing the gap between fundamental frequencies and overtones through diffusely pitched sounds like bowed cymbal and other frictional textures. As much as I enjoy them, the first two Polwechsel albums and parts of the third (excepting "Government") were compromised by an arid and dull feeling owing to the internal conflict of narrowly pitch-centric sound sources (cello, acoustic guitar, contrabass) trying to deal with pitch-independent structures like extended stasis, discrete shifts in vertical density, etc. Alongside the spectral expansion achieved by this quintet, Moser's continued evolution as a computer manipulator (in addition to his cello playing) is equally responsible for the erasure of boundaries between individual instrumental identities and the construction of monolithic sound shapes brimming with disembodied slow-moving patterns like the ridges on sculptural surfaces that appear flat from a distance. For the sake of broadly describing the music, it might be useful to know that it's fairly slow, quiet, careful, and mostly based around continuous textural blends that retain a distinctly "acoustic" feeling. I'm often reminded of the very calm passages of Dumitrescu. To my ears they are one of the few medium-sized-or-larger ensembles with the intense focus and refinment of timbre to create a ritualistic experience of tension and immersion approaching the benchmarks established by BSC ("Good") and Trockeneis ("5025 AD"), though it's worth noting that this music never loses its cool or climbs arches into primal release. Its combination of sustained tranquility and infinite nuance make it a breathtaking work that demands the attention of anyone following the development of music in the current era.

Michael Anton Parker, Downtown Music Gallery

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POLWECHSEL
archives of the north
hatOLOGY
Burkhard Beins (dr, perc), Martin Brandlmayr (dr, perc), John Butcher (ts, ss), Werner Dafeldecker (b), Michael Moser (c, computer)
rec: 06; Vertrieb: Lotus

Die Platte des Monats (und darüber hinaus) befindet sich hiermit ausnahmsweise nicht bei den Rezensionen. Denn was hier mit einem Schlag aufs Becken und einem Ton aus Butchers Sopransax anhebt, gehört zum Bemerkenswertesten, das zurzeit in der Improvisierten Musik zu hören ist – ein organisches Ganzes, dem man die ausgiebige Zeit ihrer Entstehung in jeder Phase dieser gut 50 Minuten anhört. Geradezu absurd mutet der Label-Vorschlag „File under: Jazz/Free Improvisation“ an, mit Jazz und daraus resultierenden Impro hat die Polwechsel-Musik tatsächlich nichts mehr gemein, oder wenigstens nicht mehr als das Instrumentarium, das dort drüben auch zum Einsatz kommt. Aber wenn sich sonst keine Schublade findet, was soll man da machen, gell? Die „Archives Of The North“ – der Titel scheint mir noch das Rätselhafteste bzw. Spekulativste an dieser CD – erklingen in einem kollektiven Sound, der ganz ohne Swing auf der einen und ohne Genudel auf der anderen Seite auskommt. Im Gegenteil: Durch klug angemessene Strukturen werden in dieser Klangarbeit, in der vieles parallel passiert und manches komplex geschichtet ist, Präzision und Leichtigkeit ebenso großgeschrieben wie Klarheit und Transparenz – und vermögen dabei auch noch ein Geheimnis zu bergen. Was für die Jungen Sonic Youth bedeutet(e), verdiente hier die Überschrift Sonic Adult. Eine Rarität, die Polwechsel außerdem gelingt: Diese fünf Stücke eignen sich sowohl zum konzentriert Zuhören als auch zum nebenbei Laufenlassen. Musik für alle Lebenslagen. Und selbst nach dem 20. Durchlauf sitze ich erhitzt da – und gebannt, obwohl das gute Stück bereits seit gut einer Viertelstunde vorbei ist. Mindestens so lang klingen die „Archives Of The North“ nach. Die Aufhebung der Zeit hat schon begonnen.

Andreas Fellinger aka felix, freistil Nr.9

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One of the most fitting descriptions of a live Polwechsel gig was when someone told me, "it's like watching paint dry". An honest answer perhaps. In their third line-up since their inception in the early 90's, ultra-minimal Polwechsel is now a quintet. Gone is guitarist Burkhard Stangl. Addition of percussionists Burkhard Beins and Martin Bradlmayr makes for an interesting paradigm shift. There are still plenty of severely austere and quiet moments. Polwechsel is famous for its long, drawn-out passages. Whether it's John Butcher's elongated breaths on the tenor or soprano that seem to go on for eternity or Michael Moser's slightly out-of-whack cello parts or perhaps it's Werner Dafeldecker's slowly massaged bass strings - every last inch of their music is carefully thought out and delicately balanced. Exciting part in their new pieces is the shimmering, purposefully timed percussion tid-bits. Beins and Brandlmayr trade off on utilizing percussive tools at their disposal and when both are permitted to hit the cymbals or caresses the skins lightly, the place really shakes. Chamber like quality still persists as does a turtle speed of execution. Once again, emphasis is put on meticulous delivery of each and every sound in the room, rather than a rush of audio all at once. Headphone music perhaps, much of the work was put together in the mixing/editing process, which takes nothing away from the power this ensemble commands during a live performance. Listener can't help but to be drawn into their work simply by the act of the unexpected. What will come next? You're bound to hear an explosion or a climax that is nowhere to be heard, but still, you're thrilled by the wait. Their approach to timbres and complex shifts in microscopic music creation has not changed much since inception of the group. Whether your bag is watching paint dry or maybe a mixture of musique concrète, improvisation and carefully composed sounds turns you on, "Archives of the North" has it all.

tom Sekowski, Gaz-Eta

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For their fourth album Polwechsel gathered in a quintet comprising Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr (drums, percussion), John Butcher (tenor and soprano sax), Werner Dafeldecker (double bass) and Michael Moser (cello, computer). Ever since the very first moments of the opening track "Datum cut" we plunge right into an equalitarian oleography; this obscure diffusion of massive immanence explicates through semi-menacing permutations of the acoustic matter, like if the players were stimulated by the very transudations of their reciprocal perceptions. The percussive element introduced by Beins and Brandlmayr, which replaces Burkhard Stangl's guitar sounds, often shifts the overall balance towards territories bordering AMM and Organum, particularly when bowed cymbals and scraped metals enter the picture. Yet it's the organic continuum elicited by Dafeldecker's bass and Moser's cello that colours the album with a sense of "fulfilled gloom" which maintains a firm grip on our disposition; on the other hand, Butcher tends to remain less discernible, although being thoroughly effective in the distillation process of this music's physical essence. My favourite moment is represented by "Magnetic North", the lone track signed by the quintet as a whole: a periodic cycle of spheroidal figures rotating amidst morphing nightglows, a piece that functions as an orientation point in between the many conscious suspensions born from Polwechsel's intuitive gestures. "Archives of the North" is another fundamental chapter in this collective's history and is warmly suggested as an addition in your wantlists.

Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

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It´s tough to imagine Polwechsel without Burkhard Stangl but here it is, their erstwhile guitarist replaced by two percussionists, the redoubtable Burkhard Beins and the always astonishing Martin Brandlmayr. While the resultant disc doesn´t, for this listener, reach the heights of their "2" from 1998 (a seminal album for opening up my ears to this area of music), I find it far preferable to the overly dry previous release on Durian. Five tracks, four of them composed (three by Moser, one by Dafeldecker), one group improvisation, all of them solid. The percussion announces itself quickly on "Datum Cut" with struck and swiped metal, layered smoothly into the deep and richly bowed strings as well as the almost string-like reed work of Butcher. Throughout the recording, it´s rather easy to "lose" his contributions, they blend so ably with the ensemble. In his liner notes, Dean Roberts makes reference to Lucier´s "I Am Sitting In A Room" with regard to this piece though I´m unable to hear any sort of structural similarity unless its iterations are lengthy enough that I´ve lost track of any pattern. It does, somewhat, bring to mind a few of that composer´s other investigations into sine waves and their near correspondence to certain tones produced by acoustical objects, but only in a very general manner. Whatever its influences, it´s a strong, vibrant piece, well-paced. Dafeldecker´s "Mirror" begins scratchily, morphing into a lovely bass-led section with, if I´m hearing correctly, Butcher contributing some wonderful, deep feedback sax which in turn blends into stridently bowed cymbals before nestling back into clicks `n´ drones. Bass pops and wooden thwacks open Moser´s brief "Core Cut", possibly the most intense and successful piece on the disc. It almost sounds as thought there´s some sort of round at play here, the elements rotating in and out of sync, but not in a predictable manner, with faint echoes of gamelan. The improvisation, "Magnetic North", also works very well and is (perhaps not surprisingly) the lushest and airiest of the works presented here. There´s a relatively tonal backdrop formed, I´m guessing, by Beins´ rubbed percussion and some computerized offerings from Moser that allow the piece to waft along gently, bumping into the odd bell-tone or low saxophone billow. The final track, "Site and Setting", is the most clearly composed of the bunch and I found myself weighing the rather episodic structure of the piece (especially in its first half), which I thought was a little strained, against the individual components of each episode, many of which are gorgeous and/or just fascinating. The percussionists shine here and, as before, integrate superbly with the strings. Special mention should again be made of Butcher. Here as almost everywhere else on the album, a cursory listen might not detect his presence at any given time. But there´s virtually no moment, if one listens closely enough, when you can´t discern him, subtly adding crucial texture and infinitely enriching the depth of the music. "Archives of the North" is well worth hearing. As good a recording as it is, I´m actually more excited anticipating what´s to come from Polwechsel. I hope this incarnation holds together for at least a little while; there´s vast potential here.

Brian Olewnick, Bagatellen

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"Critics Choice", Jazz-Zeitung 2006/10: Eine Klang-, Ton- und Geräuschwelt eigenen Tempos, wie eine unbekannte Insel im Strom der Normalmusik.

Martin Hufner, Taktlos (BR/NMZ)

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The (mostly) Austrian collective Polwechsel has been around for a long time now. Initially formed by bassist Werner Dafeldecker and cellist Michael Moser, the group has changed lineups a few times (and now they have shifted from the composition-oriented Hat Now imprint to the improv-focused Hatology). Initially comprising its co-founders, guitarist Burkhard Stangl and trombonist Radu Malfatti, for their second album, Polwechsel replaced Malfatti with tenor and soprano saxophonist John Butcher. This lineup remained in place for their third full-length (on Durian) and their Erstwhile collaboration with Fennesz. On Archives of the North (Hatology 633), Stangl has been replaced by drummer/percussionists Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr (the latter known by many for his sizzling work in Radian and Trapist). It´s quite a shift in terms of the immediate impression of these improvisations, although the group´s overall approach to the music remains consistent. They remain one of the most intriguing groups in post-AMM improvisation and this is a strong set. Occasionally an instrument is struck or a staccato note articulated, but for the most part things fade in and out on beds of vibrating cymbals, excited strings, and breath. Ghost sounds float, spirits seem to possess metal husks and long-dead machines, the inanimate comes alive. This feel is especially felt on the opening "Datum Cut" (which Dean Roberts, in his informative liners, likens to Alvin Lucier´s "I am Sitting in a Room"), which follows the long, slow resonations of a distant tolling bell. Even when the music is most voluble as on Dafeldecker´s "Mirror", where things are (relatively speaking of course) somewhat declamatory, or Moser¹s percussive "Core Cut" it is always subtle, muted, restrained. But don´t catch yourself drifting away, because there is (on almost all of these tracks) an insistent low thrum that billows ominously. The title track this disc´s only fully improvised piece has a sinister feel to it as well, and I can´t help but hearing the entire disc as if it´s preoccupied with this sense of dread or foreboding (a lovely irony considering how light and fluid Polwechsel can be). This gives it a character that lingers long after the record is over, and which brings me back to it repeatedly.

Jason Bivins, Dusted Magazine

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Situated even more so than previously within its own unique sound world, the now five-man Polwechsel mixes reductionist techniques and inchoate electronic tinctures with the autonomy of FreeImprov to make its point On this CD, the Austrian-British band changes direction by adding two percussionists Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr to an aural concept that previously was advanced by Polwechsel founders, Werner Dafeldecker on bass and cellist Michael Moser and given auxiliary tinctures when London-based reedist John Butcher joined the ensemble at the beginning of the century. True to its initial impulses though, Beins, who has partnered with everyone from British guitarist Keith Rowe to vocalist Phil Minton; and Brandlmayr, who is in the Trapist trio which explores similar territory; aren´t percussionists in the conventional sense at least if that´s measured in beats, flams or paradiddles. Instead both men inject barely pressured, stretched tones from their kits long, hocketing cymbal vibrations, patterning wooden rim shot snaps, drum top scrapes and friction plus chains rattling and the rolling of blunt objects. Interlocking with these impulses are Butcher´s distinctive tongue fluttering and stops, singular tone warbling, and multiphonic note expansion. Dafeldecker adds precise arco string movements and more concentrated dense hums, plus occasional, and often seemingly random, pizzicato string strums. Additionally, Mosher outputs electronic impulses from his computer from time-to-time. Yet the crackling reverb and input signal- crossing is introduced with the same lapidary care as the reedist brings to his wind-chime-like trills or the bassist does to his droned undercurrent. Essentially the concept, like similarly distinctive tone distribution from England´s AMM or Australia´s The Necks is inimitable improvisation following its own reductionist strictures. This way, the underlying and overlaid pulses are as liable to result from polyphonic interaction among subsets of acoustic instruments as from wave form oscillation produced electronically. Zart as well as staccato, yet characterized at points with authoritative undulation arising from strummed chords and reed-linked ghost-note obbligatos, the sound appears and vanishes according to its own logic. Of and in itself and apparently timeless, ARCHIVES OF THE NORTH marks a stimulating next step in Polwechsel¹s evolution.

Ken Waxman, Jazzword / Jazz Weekly

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Mit ihren stringent komponierten Improvisationen, ihrer beinahe sturen Konzentration auf kleinste klangliche Details, ihrer Faszination am Geräusch und der ganz selbstverständlichen Verbindung von Akustik und Elektronik agieren Polwechsel seit 1993 in einem riskanten Genre. Nicht zuletzt dank des auch internationalen Erfolgs haben sie es geschafft, mittlerweile geradezu paradigmatisch für eine avancierte Spielart der Wiener Musik des letzten Fin de Siècle zu stehen. Nach längerer Pause präsentiert sich die Formation um Michael Moser (Cello, Elektronik) und Werner Dafeldecker (Kontrabass, Elektronik) nun mit Saxofonist John Butcher sowie den Perkussionisten Burkhard Beins und Martin Brandlmayr in neuer Besetzung - und mit den alten Qualitäten: Intensität durch radikale Reduktion.

Carsten Fastner, Falter

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Burkhard Beins und Martin Brandlmayr, Schlagzeug und Perkussion, John Butcher an den Saxofonen, Michael Moser und last but not least Werner Dafeldecker sind das Quintett Polwechsel. Und auch fünf Musiker können kontemplativ sein. Der stetig wallende Soundteppich aus elektronisch generierten Tönen und expressiven perkussiven Einsprengseln bilden das Fundament für die sparsam gesetzten Tönen von Bass, Cello und Saxofon. Werner Dafeldecker meinte dazu in einem Inerview "Noch weniger wäre nichts". Damit meint er ein Nichts an Tönen, aber nicht ein Nichts an Empfindungen und Emotionen und Zustandsbeschreibungen. Auf dieser CD wird mit sehr wenig enorm viel erzeugt und wer bereit ist, sich auf die unendliche Tiefe der Assoziationen einzulassen wird reichlich belohnt. Wo Nummern bis auf das Skelett der Harmonik abgenagt sind, wo der Knochen wichtiger ist als das Fleisch, da beginnt diese Musik und da hat auch der Hörgenuss seinen Anfang. Fragmentarisch klingen Melodien an, entstehen Themen, die im nächsten Moment wieder verworfen werden, tauchen Bilder auf, die sich sofort wieder im Nebel verflüchtigen und enstehen Stimmungen, die tief berühren. Es sind Klanggebilde, die im Moment entstehen, die in freier Assoziation geboren werden und die so nicht mehr wieder kommen. Der Aspekt des Flüchtigen, der Reiz des Augenblicks und die Spannung des Moments beherrscht diese beharrlich beherrschte CD. Musik, die erarbeitet werden will, von den Interpreten genau so wie von den Konsumenten.

akro, kulturwoche.at

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A group with Polwechsel´s importance must bear up continually to the weight of expectation, and this newest disc certainly does not disappoint. On this outing, founding guitarist Burkhard Stangl is absent, making way for two percussionists, Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayer(...) While Polwechsel¹s third full-length, Polwechsel 3 (on Dafeldecker´s Durian imprint), was a series of harsh juxtapositions and whiplash starts and stops, Archives is glacial. It lurches into life with a clang and a saxophone ripple, but the rest of opener "Datum Cut" consists of echoes and resonances of that first moment. Some of these are probably quite literal, a fair amount of processing clearly in evidence while crystalline tones glow, fade and re-emerge in other registers. It´s one of the most beautiful tracks that the group has issued, melding the best elements of improvisation and composition to form a structure that skirts electro-acoustic cliches. (...) Archives of the North a fascinating and challenging listen, partly because of how simple it all seems on the surface.

Marc Medwin, Grooves Magazine

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In a world based largely on solo and duo work and chance collaborations, Polwechsel and poire_z were supergroups. The quiet flutters of electronics and acoustic instruments can be hard enough to keep fresh and engaging for two performers, but often times larger groups just blur the whole creation‹becoming more like a mud puddle than a cloud. If AMM are the forebears of the quiet improv scene (and they are), Polwechsel and poire_z were the proudest sons. By 2004, however, both groups had disbanded, leaving a hole in the European version of onkyo. The members continued to work, of course, but for followers it was something like the Stones had broke up at the same time as the Beatles. Sure, we still had the Kinks, butŠ Happily, Polwechsel, originally formed in 1993, has returned with its third lineup and fifth release, one every bit as strong as its excellent, sometimes hard to find predecessors. The group¹s founders, cellist Michael Moser and bassist Werner Dafeldecker, remain, as does saxophonist John Butcher, who replaced trombonist Radu Malfatti in 1997. The five tracks on Archives of the North (ranging from five to fifteen minutes) are immediately recognizable as Polwechsel sound‹sustained, breathy scrapes and tones punctuated very occasionally by discrete bass occurrences. But the surprise this time, with the departure of guitarist Burkard Stangl, is that the group now has two percussionists. For such a soft and abstract ensemble, drums would seem a detriment, but Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr approach the group with an orchestral sense. There are more abrupt moments here than on previous discs, but then Revolver was hardly Beatles for Sale, either. The group has grown in breadth and dynamic‹and for the better, if only because sitting still is never an improvement.

Kurt Gottschalk, All About Jazz

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The process of making music can sustain only so much discussion, and the essay that accompanies Archives Of The North more than adequately covers this abstract material. In any case, Polwechsel's sound world, as with any manifestation of experimental music, is better experienced than analysed.
One pertinent reference point is Morton Feldman's singularly reduced minimalism. All of the pieces here certainly echo Feldman's penchant for unconventional development, and the results, as on Michael Moser's 'Datum Cut' and the group's 'Magnetic North' occupy a superficially similar state of stasis.
There are, however, forces of even deeper subversion here, and John Butcher's contributions best exemplify this. At no time does his saxophone actually sound like a reed instrument, with the exception of some passages on 'Site And Setting' and while the the two percussionists stand out by dint of their dryness and comparative lack of sustain, they are deployed in a manner that is complementary to the advancement of greater group forces.
Through his use of a computer, cellist Michael Moser aids that subversive process, and again the analysis of precisely what he does with it seems irrelevant in view of the fact that his contributions are equally geared towards group ends.
The secrets of this music, and they're numerous, seem to be so deeply buried within it that the disc just may yield endlessly rewarding listening. The music occupies its own space, and its singularly uncompromising nature is nothing but welcome to these ears.

Nic Jones, All About Jazz

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Depuis son premier album en 1994, Polwechsel n’a eu de cesse d’inventer de nouvelles approches de la musique, de décloisonner les rapports entre l’improvisation et la composition. Dès cette èpoque, cet ensemble à géométrie variable défrichait déjà beaucoup des chemins qu’emprunterait l’improvisation au cours de la décennie suivante – Radu Malfatti, futur >> maitre à penser << du réductionnisme, en fit partie jusqu’en 1997, tous le autres membres ayant par ailleurs enregistré des disques capitaux pour le label Erstwhile, notamment avec Christian Fennesz. Sur Archives Of The North, Polwechsel continue son exploration, toujours plus redevable à Alvin Lucier qu’à Derek Bailey. Grâce à de nouvelles recrues issues des groupes Radian et Trapist (Burkhard Beins et Martin Brandlmayr), le collectif s’attache ici au potentiel des percussions, à la manière de géologues : chacun inventorie son matériau, strate après strate, concentré sur l’écoute réciproque. Dans l’organisation de l’ensemble, des éléments nouveaux surgissent sans cesse du silence, par bribes, tandis que d’autres s’effacent, liquéfiés. Paraphrasant saint Augustin, le compositeur Luigi Nono écrivait : << Il n’y a aucun chemin, seulement celui qui marche. >> Polwechsel trace un passionnant enchevêtrement de textures complexes, sans autre boussole que son envie de dialoguer, et donc d’extraire du son et du sens, en direct.

Philippe Robert, Mouvement

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Il y a eu un glissement sémantique dans le changement de catégorie de ce cinquiéme Polwechsel toujour chez Hat mais en improvisation libre et plus musique nouvelle contemporaine.Finit le voisinage scelsien et bienvenue celui des jazzman!
Pourtant Polchwesel a peu en commun avec le jazz et peut étre méme avec l'improvisation "académique".Cet ensemble promis à la légende des idiomes singuliers (AMM , Nuova Consonanza , MEV) trace depuis 14 ans un parcours singulier autour d'un coeur de deux compositeurs qui signent l'essentiel des titres: Michael Moser (celliste) et Werner Dafeldecker(doublebass) .Leur idiome au plus loin du bombardement virtuose relève de la lumiére comme couleur pas du texte , plaçant les textures, les températures ,les techniques de fondues au centre de la pratique compositionelle.Car il y a composition et on trouve de trés sérieuses et trés belles partitions sur le site du groupe qui pour chaque disque démontre une volonté de tester la validité de l'écriture de mettre en son le canevas d'une pensée sans pour autant céder à la coercision maniaque.Ceci bien sur est dans l'héritage tant scelsien,que cagien de la spectralité ,de l'exhausivité de l'instrument du bruit et des fréquences. Passons sur les importants remaniements d'effectifs qui voit la percussion autrefois résiduelle faire une entrée en force sur "Archive of the north" et notons la prédominance des cordes qui imprégnent toute l'esthétique de Polwechsel . Elles sont essentielles pour tendrent la matiére spectrale,l'entretenir, la moduler, gommer les attaques, déployer les résonances, permettrent un flottement trés fin autour d'une hauteur centrale ce qui amena Scelsi à les privilégier au piano pour sonder le coeur du son. Polwechsel exploite comme lui (écouter Maknongan si vous en douter) un monde de gradients ,de tensions d'épaisseurs de flux qui relévent de la nature ondulatoire du son et de la superposition.Pour ne pas briser les parcours graphiques hachurés des photo-scores il emméne la percussion vers les métaux vibrants et le sax (jadis le trombone paradigmatique "soufflé" de Malfatti)dans des étirements de bruit blanc effaçant toutes jazzités du timbre de cet instrument. Les partitions sont explicites, chaques zones de sol gelés ou laissant appaittrent le sol constituent une indication de matiére associée à un jeu que la timeline reporte sur la photo entiére, synthése pansonique dont les autres pages ne sont que des bouts. On a là toute l'idiosyncrasie du duo zoomer, dériver a travers les textures parfois ponctuer de saillies percutées qui donne à entendre le monde en suspension de ce quintet exceptionnel. Ambient , drone , spectralité qu'importe ils sont une seule et méme volonté de ne pas céder sur l'essentiel : la musique est l'expression fondamentale du son, certes, et audelà du monde lui méme(si on ne réduit pas ce terme à la seule et minuscule terre mais à la vibration universelle de la matiére et du vide. On peut écouter ces plages en lisant le difficile mais passionnant "Vide et création" de Michel Cassé s'imprégner de l'actualité brulante que musique et physique on en commun .Par chance la musique est bien plus facile d'accés quoique beaucoup trouvent trop dur l'effort d'en écouter et préférent se laisser couler exténuer dans la muzak. Cette grande musqiue éclaire le monde de l'intérieur, elle est un cogito vibrant éclot du coeur de chaque boucle de pression d'air. Une errance sublime dans le nord magnétique d'un lieu indécidable trés concret et trés abstrait .Plus que conseillé.

Boris Wlassoff, Revue et Corrigée

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A German-Austrian-British band that equally mixes electronics and acoustic instruments, and improvisation and composition, Polwechsel is fully abstract, if you consider lack of melody the definition of abstraction in music. With “Archives of the North” (Hat Hut), its third album, the group has reached a state of refined grace. It now has the drummers Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr, the saxophonist John Butcher, the bassist Werner Dafeldecker, and Michael Moser on cello and computer. Working together, they make the most beautiful bowings and chimings and scrapings, blending them so that it all becomes one fluid motion. It’s lovely music that some people might not call music at all.

Ben Ratliff, New York Times 01.14.07

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